I've just discovered that when viewing news items from "The Independent" that I can remove certain adverts. I was getting annoyed by one series of small images leading to full adverts which appeared to dominate not only the item I was reading, but also side columns as well. There is a small "x" in the top right corner of the image - clicking on it opens a list of options, so I ticked on "Offensive" - which seemed appropriate. After closing the page, and reopening, the offending image(s) do seem to have disappeared - for the time being.

Someone posted a forum question months and months ago about a photography diploma course they had either signed up for or were considering after buying their first camera. I looked it up in order to reply to the post. Now I find every woodworking video I look at on u-tube trails these how-to-be-a-photographer courses. Time to wipe out all my cookies I think.

I don't watch a huge amount of TV, but it's rare for me to watch in it real time when I do. I record programmes ahead of time to save for later. The fact that it gives me 100% zappability is a bonus of course. If I do find myself watching something as it's broadcast, and it's on a commercial channel, I invariably pause it every time I need to get up to go to the loo or make a cuppa so that I have at least *some* zappability. However, Tony is correct in saying that most viewing sections are now wrapped up in a main sponsor that signals both the beginning and end of the ad break. You get to know that when you see their logo you need to either start or stop zapping. So I now have Viking River Cruises and Casillero Del Diablo firmly burned onto my retinas ;-)

Someone posted a forum question months and months ago about a photography diploma course they had either signed up for or were considering after buying their first camera. I looked it up in order to reply to the post. Now I find every woodworking video I look at on u-tube trails these how-to-be-a-photographer courses. Time to wipe out all my cookies I think.

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It may be something much more insidious than cookies.

My wife and I use completely separate devices, although on the same broadband wifi.

Several times in recent weeks she has Googled something and I have almost immediately started to receive "sponsored posts" for linked products on Facebook and other services.

So it must be done through the IP identifier rather than by cookies on specific devices.

My wife and I use completely separate devices, although on the same broadband wifi.

Several times in recent weeks she has Googled something and I have almost immediately started to receive "sponsored posts" for linked products on Facebook and other services.

So it must be done through the IP identifier rather than by cookies on specific devices.

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We have found this too. I was looking online for something and the next day my husband was seeing ads for it all over his computer. We do run a small network here though so don't know if that's the issue.

Now, I don't know how true this is, but I did recently read that if you have the facebook app on your iphone, and you don't specifically turn the permissions off, facebook has access to a microphone on your phone - and can use the info it picks up to tailor ads. I have no idea if this is accurate or not but after seeing ads on facebook for something that I didn't look up online but HAD been discussing with my son, I went and turned off the relevant permissions!

I had a friend who was having a rant on Facebook about having to pay for a TV licence as he "never watched the BBC". He didn't appreciate me pointing out the video clips he shared that were of BBC productions.